LUIGUI&mdash;Linux/UNIX Independent Group for Usability Information

A new Linux group has been organized to look at user interfaces and help formulate a standard in an effort to ease the way for Linux to move onto the desktop.

Over the past year, public exposure of
Linux has increased beyond anyone's expectations. Company after
company has embraced Linux as a superior solution for server
applications. Despite all this, one mantra of negativity has
continued to dog Linux: “It's not suitable for desktop use.”

Even when extolling the virtues of Linux as a server, the
praise is often followed with a few discouraging warnings. Linux is
difficult to install. The command line is too cryptic. The X Window
System's applications have no consistency. Linux doesn't work with
the major Windows and Macintosh applications. Linux is only for
engineers who like long strings of numbers. (I've actually heard
this last one, believe it or not.) They all boil down to “Linux is
too hard for the average user.”

While many people, even Linux users, do believe the above,
for each assertion against its ease of use, there is a group of
people who know it's not true and can prove it. Anyone who has
installed Windows from scratch can testify that it is hardly a
simpler process than installing Red Hat or Caldera OpenLinux.
Likewise, anyone who has attempted to move a set of files from one
machine to another using standard DOS commands can appreciate the
sheer usefulness of tar,
gzip and other commands.

In these cases, as well as many others, the simple fact is
that other systems seem simpler only because most people don't
encounter these situations when using them. When you buy a new PC,
Windows is already there, pre-installed. Most common file
operations are performed using point-and-click and drag-and-drop,
not with command-line utilities. For years now, most versions of
UNIX have offered similar ways of manipulating files in a quick and
easy graphical manner.

Where do these misconceptions about Linux originate? Like
most things in life, people believe what they see and what they
hear. We know what people are hearing about Linux, so what do they
see? Typically, a person's first encounter with Linux is from a
friend or colleague who is an established Linux user.

Most users who have spent a considerable time with Linux have
learned the “Great Secret of UNIX”. The one feature that UNIX
(and Linux in particular) has which no other operating system has
been able to duplicate is its infinite configurability. Every
moment of the Linux experience, from startup to shutdown and
everything in between, can be tweaked, tuned and completely
subverted to create a uniquely personal environment.

This Power Is Exactly the Problem

People who see Linux for the first time invariably encounter
a system that is efficient, streamlined, and to their eyes,
completely incomprehensible. The same features that make Linux
attractive to those who know it, keep those who don't, away.

So what is the solution? How do we take the one system that
really can be all things to all people and present it in an
intelligible way to newcomers?

The answer may lie, at least in part, in a new movement known
as the Linux/UNIX Independent Group for Usability Information
(LUIGUI). Dr. Nathaniel Borenstein of the University of Michigan
announced LUIGUI at the inaugural meeting of the U of M branch of
SIGCHI (the Computer and Human Interaction group of ACM). Dr.
Borenstein's name is familiar to many in the computer world. Among
many other accomplishments, he is the inventor of MIME, the
recognized standard for identifying and transferring data over the
Internet. Dr. Borenstein has also been an active participant in the
push for responsible Internet development, an author and an
entrepreneur.

LUIGUI is an attempt to formulate the ideal interface for
those new to Linux. Taking the project to its ideal conclusion,
anyone trying Linux for the first time would be guaranteed several
things.

Intuitive installation: one
of these days, you will be able to go to your nearest Best Buy or
Sears and purchase the latest Compaq or Sony PC pre-installed with
the industry standard desktop operating system: Linux. Okay, I hope
that will happen. However, until it does, a PC will come with
Windows, and anyone who wants to try out Linux will have to install
it. Therefore, the process should be simple and painless, even
enjoyable. This is an essential step for Linux. It doesn't matter
how many impressive demonstrations their friends have given—a
person's opinion of an operating system is solidified the first
time they sit down and use it on their own.

Full functionality: Linux,
at its very heart, is simply the name of an operating system
kernel. Linux provides the backbone of a useful system, but no
utility on its own. What we commonly call “Linux” is actually the
Linux kernel in combination with a wide variety of tools and
applications. In fact, the sheer number of standard Linux utilities
created by the GNU project alone has led to suggestions that the
full Linux distribution be named “GNU/Linux” or even “LiGNUx”.
While that can of worms is best left unopened, what is undeniable
is that the quality of applications available for Linux has been as
much a factor in its popularity as the quality of the kernel.
Taking this idea further, there is a core set of functionality that
every user needs, or at least should be able to access. Word
processing, a spreadsheet, image manipulation—these are all tasks
that have become everyday activities in the world of desktop
computing.

Ease of use: this area is
the key for many people and is where much of the current
development work (outside of LUIGUI) is being focused. Projects
like KDE and GNOME are proving that, yes, Linux can have a GUI that
the average person can use comfortably. This is the “pretty face”
Linux desperately needs. Users should be presented with an initial
desktop that is simple, elegant, and above all, understandable. It
should take minimal thought to launch an application, navigate the
file system or do any of the other common tasks that users perform
through the desktop.

Ease of configuration: this
is an area where Linux presents two extremes. On one hand, the
configurability of Linux is unmatched by any other mainstream
operating system. This is very important, as having a user-friendly
configuration system is not much good if there is little the user
can configure. However, in the presentation of configuration, Linux
is still lacking. Users should have a method of customizing their
environment that is as easy to use and understand as the
environment. The fact that Linux has so much that can be configured
makes this task even more difficult, but considering the feats the
Linux community has been capable of so far, it should not be beyond
reach.

Standardization: this is,
for LUIGUI, both the hardest and the most important area. All the
above criteria can be met, in some form or another, by Linux today.
New, easy-to-use installers are becoming common on the major
distributions. Company after company has announced applications for
Linux users, and the Open Source community is matching their
output. The desktop environment is friendlier then ever, and
graphical configuration utilities are appearing for everything from
adding users to configuring high-end web servers. However, what
every new Linux user must be guaranteed is an environment that is
predictable. A single, standard desktop environment, meeting all of
the criteria above should be presented when a Linux system is
booted for the first time. Naturally, people will still customize
their environment, but if this standard is as good as we know it
can be, a large enough base of users will form so that this desktop
environment will be used as a sort of lingua franca with which all
Linux users can communicate.

At first glance, accomplishing the above seems like a
near-impossible task that would take millions of dollars of funding
and years of programming talent. However, Dr. Borenstein approaches
this task with a surprising mantra: “Zero lines of code.” While
not meant literally, since new tools will inevitably have to be
written, his statement points to the heart of the matter: almost
everything we need is already present.

“People have been trying to improve the user interface for
UNIX for over 20 years, and every single attempt has succeeded.
It's like shooting fish in a barrel”, says Dr. Borenstein. The
tools and configurability UNIX provide make this task technically
simple. However, no consensus has ever been reached on what the
best standard interface would be for new users and all users in
general. The one graphical system that has become standard, the X11
windowing system, explicitly made no choice on what the standard
interface should be and merely provided the tools to create new
interfaces. This is where LUIGUI comes in.

Dr. Borenstein has called LUIGUI the “Consumer's Report” of
Linux. His intent is that the members of LUIGUI will evaluate all
of the various user-interface options currently available for
Linux. Through methods used by human-computer interaction
professionals and computer interface design specialists, it should
be possible to take the various pieces that exist now and combine
them to form the “ideal” standard interface for Linux. After
individual pieces of the interface are evaluated, the best of the
crop will then be advocated by LUIGUI to the rest of the Linux
community. If enough public trust and support is placed in the
project, then hopefully the major Linux distributors will make some
effort to implement the standards proposed by LUIGUI.

The LUIGUI project is spearheaded by graduate students in the
University of Michigan School of Information. The self-described
“project cheerleader” of LUIGUI is T. Charles Yun, a master's
student in the U of M's SI program. Yun, along with web-site
manager Katherine Degelau, created the LUIGUI home page at
http://www.luigui.org/.
A list of the current LUIGUI projects and goals can be found
there.

The LUIGUI project is still in its formative stage, and help
from all areas of the Linux community would be appreciated.
Instructions for joining the LUIGUI mailing list can be found on
the Web at
www.luigui.org/community/involve.html.
Members of the project feel that with broad support throughout the
Linux community, we can once and for all put to rest the last of
the Great Myths about Linux, and finally enable it to make inroads
among desktop computing users.

Randy Yarger (randy@yarger.tcimet.net) is the
Systems Administrator and Chief Programmer for H-Net, Humanities
and Social Sciences On-line
(www.h-net.msu.edu).
His sign is Virgo, his favorite color is blue, he wants to work on
world peace and is currently practicing for the interview portion
of the Miss America pageant.

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